For the first time since records were collected in 1955, Japan’s population is drawing down its savings and the savings rate, calculated as savings divided by disposable income plus pension payments, was negative 1.3%.

It’s a dramatic change from when the Japanese saved nearly a quarter of their income (23.1%) when the savings rate peaked in 1975.

Japan had the highest household saving rate in the OECD in the 1960s until it fell to the lowest. After all, an aging population draws down savings and Japan is the fastest-aging country in the world; its population has been shrinking for a decade. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »

For the first time in more than 140 years, the US has lost the title of the world’s largest economy – it has been stolen by China, according to the IMF. But how reliable are the statistics underpinning this claim? The BBC’s economics editor, Robert Peston, explains lower down why China matters to all of us.

The Chinese economy is now worth $17.6tn, slightly higher than the $17.4tn the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates for the US.

So for the first time since 1872, when it overtook the UK, the US has been knocked off the top spot.

The IMF calculated these figures by using purchasing power parity (PPP)which enables you to compare how much you can buy for your money in different countries. As money goes further in China than in the US, the figure for China is adjusted upwards. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »

Drug resistant E.coli bacteria are already a significant problem in EuropeDrug resistant infections will kill an extra 10 million people a year worldwide – more than currently die from cancer – by 2050 unless action is taken, a study says.

They are currently implicated in 700,000 deaths each year.
The analysis, presented by the economist Jim O’Neill, said the costs would spiral to $100tn (£63tn).

He was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron in July to head a review of antimicrobial resistance.

Mr O’Neill told the BBC: “To put that in context, the annual GDP [gross domestic product] of the UK is about $3tn, so this would be the equivalent of around 35 years without the UK contribution to the global economy.” Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »

Well David Cameron, perhaps learning a lesson from his stockbroker father, got his timing right.

On the morning that he warns (in the Guardian) that red lights are flashing on the dashboard of the global economy, Japan announces that it has unexpectedly crashed into recession.

Japan is still the world’s third biggest economy. And its economic contraction, which caught markets by surprise, coincides with the prolonged flatlining of the eurozone (which was confirmed on Friday) and what looks like a long-term deceleration of growth in China.

Apart from India and Mexico, most of the rest of the developing world and the so-called Brics – notably Brazil and Russia – are finding the going much tougher.

There are two apparent beacons in the gloom – the UK and US, where annual growth in national income is around 3%.

So what do the US and UK have in common?

They have central banks that have kept the cost of money cheaper than it has ever been for five years, their public-sector austerity has been less severe than billed, and their labour markets are more flexible than most in the developed world. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »

Heirs to the Rockefeller family, which made its vast fortune from oil, are to sell investments in fossil fuels and reinvest in clean energy, reports say.

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is joining a coalition of philanthropists pledging to rid themselves of more than $50bn (£31bn) in fossil fuel assets.

The announcement was made on Monday, a day before the UN climate change summit opens on Tuesday.

Some 650 individuals and 180 institutions have joined the coalition.

It is part of a growing global initiative called Global Divest-Invest, which began on university campuses several years ago, the New York Times reports.

Pledges from pension funds, religious groups and big universities have reportedly doubled since the start of 2014.

UN summit
Rockefeller Brothers Fund director Stephen Heintz said the move to divest from fossil fuels would be in line with oil tycoon John D Rockefeller’s wishes,

“We are quite convinced that if he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy,” Mr Heintz said in a statement. Den Rest des Beitrags lesen »